Jakarta Globe, Markus Junianto Sihaloho, January 27, 2014
 |
| Indonesian worker Sihatul Alfiah. (Photo courtesy of Indonesia Migrant Care) |
An
Indonesian migrant worker was left paralyzed and unable to speak after enduring
torture at the hands of her Taiwanese employer, according to a member of the
House of Representatives’ commission on manpower and labor issues.
Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Rieke Dyah Pitaloka, of Commission
IX, said at a press conference on Monday that Sihatul Alfiah, 27 — from
Banyuwangi, East Java — left for Taiwan in 2012 as a legal migrant worker
through maid agency Sinergi Binakarya to work as a caretaker for the elderly.
But when
she arrived in Taiwan, Rieke said, she was told to milk cows and clean a
cowshed outside Liouying, Tainan City, in addition to her caretaking
responsibilities.
She cleaned the cowshed, which housed 300 cows,
every day from 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. before moving on to her next job, which ran
from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Rieke said
that Sihatul was often tortured by her employer, Huang Deng Jin.
Sihatul
reported the abuse, he said, prompting the agency to meet with her employer,
which only exacerbated the problem.
“When
calling us at home, [Sihatul] said that her employer often became outraged,”
Sihatul’s mother Sutiah said, according to news portal Tribunnews.com. “When
she was angry, she often slapped and kicked her. But I was informed that my
daughter was in a coma because of her weak heart.”
On Sept.
21, 2013, Sihatul fell into a coma after being beaten with a blunt object,
according to Rieke’s account. She was taken to Chimney Iyen Tainan hospital in
Liouying, where a doctor found injuries on the back part of her head.
A month
later, she woke up from the coma fully paralyzed and unable to speak and in the
care of a nursing home.
Doctors
informed the Indonesian government that her condition was the result of heart
disease.
Suhandik,
Sihatul’s husband, said that he did not know why his wife was no longer
receiving treatment in a hospital.
“What I
know is my wife has no history of heart disease, and she was often tortured by
her employer,” he said.
The
director of Indonesian citizen protection at the Foreign Affairs Ministry
denied that Sihatul had experienced abuse.
After
receiving a report by Sihatul’s brother, Saipul, about the alleged torture, the
ministry asked the Indonesian Commerce and Economy Body (KDEI) to look into the
possibility of abuse.
“There was
a meeting between the employer, an agent and the police,” Tatang said. “No
solution was found in the mediation because the employer denied that she had
violated the contract.”
Tatang said
that doctors found no evidence of abuse, contrary to Rieke’s and Sihatul’s
family’s accounts.
Indonesia
Migrant Care accused the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of
Indonesian Workers (BNP2TKI) of circumventing the legal process in dealing with
the employer and work agency through mediation rather than in court.
“BNP2TKI
secretly conducted mediation between the family of the victim and the work
agency and agreed not to involve civil organizations in this case,” Anis
Hidayah, director of Migrant Care, said on Monday.
Anis said
that Migrant Care had received a report that a BNP2TKI representative in Taiwan
had tried to mediate privately between the victim and the employer, asking the
employer to pay for hospital expenses rather than perusing charges through the
local legal system, despite the fact that Sihatul’s brother had filed a police
report in Taiwan.
“Therefore,
we urge all sides to solve this case thoroughly,” Anis said.
No comments:
Post a Comment